Marketers Overlook Criticality of Sales Channel Provisioning, Collateral Fulfillment and Field Marketing Support in Driving Frontline Effectiveness and Competitive Advantage

PALO ALTO, Calif (Nov 29, 2010) -- A new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council reveals significant blind spots in the go-to-market process as marketers focus on strategy, creative development and campaign execution to the detriment of effective demand chain provisioning. The latter includes the efficient and timely delivery of marketing and merchandising materials to dealer, agent, franchise, retail and brand office locations, as well as the processing of customer requests for sales literature and samples through web, call center and email channels.

According to the report, entitled Competitive Gain in the Demand Chain, many marketing executives admit they have never assessed demand chain performance, nor given it high priority within the marketing operational mix. This may be contributing to the belief, expressed by 80 percent of respondents, that their organizations are not efficient or effective enough in provisioning all of the demand chain. A surprising 20 percent of more than 250 marketers audited by the CMO Council in the past three months admit their demand chain is under-performing or in need of improvement.

The study, sponsored by Archway Marketing Services, Inc., is part of ongoing research by the CMO Council's Marketing Supply Chain Institute (http://www.marketingsupplychain.org/) into ways to improve frontline performance through better go-to-market process innovation, supply chain optimization, and marketing ecosystem management.

Marketers agree that demand chain provisioning is critical to business competitiveness and performance (38 percent of respondents), while an additional 31 percent believe it is important to sustaining sales and channel operations. Yet, only 25 percent of respondents are ensuring sales support materials and resources are delivered on-demand, which would improve sell-through and customer conversion. Only 15 percent are taking steps to audit and assess marketing supply chain effectiveness, indicating that there is little to no visibility into the demand chain provisioning process to truly gauge content, material or operational impact and performance.

"Marketing tends to be preoccupied with staying on track with individual tactical executions or traditional marketing fundamentals like lead generation, campaign execution and content or creative development," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "However, today's demand chain requires a new mix of digital, direct, and retail distribution, fulfillment, measurement and tracking capabilities to maximize customer contact, conversion and interaction."

While 56 percent of marketers are focused on campaign design, development and execution, only 16 percent are looking to production, warehousing, inventory management or delivery as critical elements in an effective demand chain. In addition, just two percent are looking to optimize the actual delivery, fulfillment or distribution of their critical marketing materials.

One area that potentially holds an immediate opportunity for improvement and value creation is specific to vendor selection or management. Nearly half of respondents view demand chain procurement and fulfillment as a compilation of individual vendors, asking each vendor to bid on individual elements of the demand chain. Only seven percent of marketers view the demand chain as an area for consolidation and rationalization to gain more control and efficiency. As nearly 60 percent of respondents plan on introducing a more disciplined approach to marketing execution systems, vendor visibility is likely an ideal place to begin demand chain transformation.

"Overlooking the final 'field and prospect delivery' elements of the demand chain can be costly, and operationally disruptive," said Mike Moroz, President of Archway Marketing Services. "Far too often we see amazingly planned and executed creative fall desperately short due to a poor integration between these two segments of the demand chain -- the creative strategy and customer engagement through fulfillment."

The 50-page Competitive Gain in the Demand Chain report includes detailed findings of over 260 marketing executives and in-depth qualitative interviews with over 267 executives from brands including Advance Auto Parts, Allergan, Hershey, MGM Resorts, Oracle, Subway, and T.Rowe Price. The online quantitative audit was conducted in the third quarter of 2010, with findings collected through November 2010. To download the full report or complimentary executive summary, visit http://www.cmocouncil.org/resources/form-competitive-gain.asp.

About the CMO Council The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 6,000 members control more than $200 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 12,000 global executives across 100 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, LoyaltyLeaders.org, Online Marketing Performance Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). www.cmocouncil.org

About Archway Marketing Services Archway is a leader in marketing operations management, providing marketing execution solutions and complementary business process outsourcing. These solutions include fulfillment services, consumer promotions, rebates, print management, facility management, business intelligence and decision support tools. Each solution is designed to reduce marketing operations costs, improve marketing execution processes, leverage emerging technologies and most importantly help improve the brand experience at every touch point of their clients' marketing campaigns. Archway is ranked on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing private companies and has 1,500 employees and 3.5 million sq. ft. of distribution space in 12 major metropolitan areas in North America. For more information, visit www.archway.com.